Ways to Improve Attendance of Current Members
by Robert Crossman

• At least once or twice each year, perhaps in the New Year's resolution season, teach and preach the importance of faithful worship attendance.


• Invite church members to make a written commitment to grow one step toward faithful attendance.


• Include a commitment to faithful worship attendance as part of a holistic annual stewardship commitment.


• Keep a record of attendance and monitor it.


• Know that it is important to respond to absentees before they drop out of active attendance. Once a regular attender misses six consecutive weeks, it is hard to return to the habit of consistent Sunday worship.


• Form a worship membership care team to review attendance within 24 hours of each service.


• Send a handwritten note (signed by the membership care team, not the pastor) to anyone who has missed three Sundays in a row. Say, "Looking through the attendance slips, we've missed your name! Hope to see you next Sunday." In a smaller church, the wording can be more personal.


• Ask a personal friend (a choir mate, Sunday School class member, or someone who sits in the same pew) to telephone people who have missed four Sundays in a row. "Hi, John. We've noticed that Fred has missed church the last four Sundays. Can you telephone him this evening?"


• Maintain a loving, invitational relationship with those who have been absent for five or more Sundays. Never be judgmental.


• Telephone every household in the church and everyone who has ever visited to invite them to some special event four times a year. Say, "Hi. We are calling everyone related to First Church this week, reminding everyone that this Sunday the choir is singing the Messiah. I hope you will be there."

Dr. Robert Crossman (bcrossman@arumc.org) is Minister of New Church Starts and Congregational Advancement for the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church. These ideas are excerpted from the Lewis Center's 50 Ways to Increase Worship Attendance prepared by Dr. Crossman and now available as a free online download.

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